I use both VLC and MPC-HC, however my go-to is the latter.
There are some use cases where VLC proves useful but MPC-HC is a more enjoyable minute-to-minute experience for me.
Also VLC’s UI seems to have designed by Cthulhu cultists in the 1920s.
You could go back to a Windows 7 or 8 machine from time to time like I did, and then you’d probably come to the same conclusion, that obviously better hardware makes everything better but also Windows 10 has gone through a lot of refinement, in the UX department, too, and the old OS feel positively aged by this time.
Not that it should come as a surprise, since both 7 and 8 are ancient by tech standards and Microsoft has been pouring a lot of effort in making WIndows 10 feel fresh and snappy.
I don’t use any W10 feature that requires a Microsoft account.